The present invention relates to receptacles applicable to various apparatuses for the purpose of discarding waste liquid and, more particularly, to a waste ink collection receptacle used with an ink jet recording apparatus to discard ink which cannot serve data printout any more.
In an ink jet recording apparatus, ink drops which do not contribute to data printout are usually collected by a gutter to be returned to an ink supply line for reuse. Because the ink so collected and repeatedly used has its density and viscosity progressively varied to fail to satisfy certain conditions for separation into drops, the ink collected by the gutter has to be discarded at suitable time intervals without being returned to the ink supply line.
Meanwhile, in a recorder of the type concerned, small drops of ink, usually called satellites and which do not join in the data printout, tend to be formed during operation of the recorder. The satellites, as well as ink mist appearing at the start and stop of ink ejection due to on-off actions of a solenoid-operated valve, have to be effectively collected and discarded because they would smear the apparatus and/or a recording sheet.
A receptacle has been used with an ink jet recorder in order to collect and temporarily store the undesirable ink therein. For example, Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 53-97428 discloses a waste ink receptacle which has a mass of cotton or like absorption member packed therein for absorbing waste ink. A problem encoutered with such a receptacle is that the absorption member cannot readily hold a quantity of absorbed ink therein and, when the receptacle is attached to or detached from a recorder, tends to cause the ink to fall in drops to smear the recorder and adjacent object.
Meanwhile it has been customary to fix a waste ink receptacle to a recorder by rotating it and, therefore, to employ a cylindrical configuration for the receptacle. Therefore, it has been impossible to install a receptacle having a maximum capacity within the limited space available in the recorder. Additionally, attachment and detachment of such a receptacle to and from a recorder has not always been easy.